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Nostra Aetate,
Non-Christian Religions,
and Interfaith Relations
Edited by
Kail C. Ellis
 Nostra Aetate, Non-Christian Religions,
and Interfaith Relations

“Nostra Aetate was widely recognized as transformative by people of diverse faith

but was also received, in some circles, with indifference. This volume rediscovers
its relevance in the light of the changes in attitudes and practices in interreligious
relations augured, or confirmed, by the Council of Vatican II. Written by scholars
for the benefit of debating with other scholars, they also stimulate reflection
among practitioners.”
—Tarek Mitri, President, St. George University, Beirut, and former Acting
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon

“This significant new collection provides fresh insight into the many ways the
Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate, has
transformed the relationship between Catholic Christians and the Jewish, Muslim,
Hindu, and Buddhist communities around the world. Highly informative reading
for anyone seeking to understand the world of interfaith relations today.”
—Catherine E. Clifford, Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, Saint
Paul University, Ottawa, ON, Canada
 Kail C. Ellis
Editor

Nostra Aetate,
Non-Christian
Religions,
and Interfaith
Relations
Editor
Kail C. Ellis
Saint Augustine Center
Villanova University
Villanova, PA, USA

ISBN 978-3-030-54007-4 ISBN 978-3-030-54008-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54008-1

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2021
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such
names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for
general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and informa-
tion in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither
the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with
respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been
made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps
and institutional affiliations.

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Dedication
Dr. Hafeez Malik (1930–2020)
Friend, Scholar, Teacher, Mentor and Visionary
Rest in Peace
 Preface

Villanova University and the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies hosted
a conference on the Second Vatican Council declaration, Nostra Aetate,
on 7–9 November 2019. The declaration, promulgated by Pope Paul VI
on 25 October, 1965, was widely celebrated throughout the world on its
fiftieth anniversary in 2015 with conferences, special events, and publi-
cations. Given that it was only four years since these commemorations
occurred, one speaker at the conference asked, “Why Another Confer-
ence on Nostra Aetate?” Although rhetorical, the challenge was never-
theless a little unnerving, given the extensive preparations that went into
organizing the Villanova conference. It soon became evident, however,
that the speaker’s motive for asking the question was to have his audi-
ence consider not only the importance of understanding the declaration’s
development from its original intention of addressing only relations with
Jews, and its expansion into a comprehensive text of interreligious rela-
tions, but also its contemporary relevance. While he noted that the decla-
ration was controversial at the time it was promulgated and that it remains
controversial in our own time, crucially, Nostra Aetate’s story is still being
written.
The speaker’s comments echoed those of Cardinal Leonardo Sandri,
Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, who kindly
sent greetings to “the distinguished guests and dear participants” at the
opening of the conference. Cardinal Sandri wrote: “Today more than
ever this Declaration of the Second Vatican Council requires reflection

vii
viii PREFACE

and application in order to assure peaceful co-existence of religions and

cultures.” Although promulgated in 1965, Nostra Aetate remains full of
meaning and relevance as “In our time, when day by day mankind is
being drawn closer together, and the ties between different peoples are
becoming stronger the Church examines more closely her relationship to
non-Christian religions.” (Nostra Aetate 1).
Cardinal Sandri’s comments that Nostra Aetate remains full of meaning
and relevant and the speaker’s statement that the documents “still being
written” are a reminder that the document cannot be regarded solely as
a statement on interreligious relations written in the particular cultural
context of the 1960s. Rather, its continuing relevance lies in applying
the document and its principles, particularly those of dialogue and under-
standing, to our own time. If done appropriately, the process will not only
be an educational but also a provocative exercise.
The English translation of Nostra Aetate, “In Our Time,” should cause
us to reflect on its current relevance and how its story is being continually
written. Most people would agree that the time in which we live is a most
difficult and troubled one. It is marked by rising religious intolerance,
anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States and else-
where. Tragically, intolerance has become a worldwide phenomenon with
the rise of ethno-nationalism in European countries and religious perse-
cution in other areas such as south Asia where Muslims and other minori-
ties live. Its manifestations are often violent as evidenced by the 2017
demonstrations on the campus of the University of Virginia when several
hundred torch-wielding white supremacists shouted anti-Semitic slogans
of “Jews will not replace us!” and “White lives matter!” More recently,
attacks on synagogues and kosher grocery stores followed in 2019 in
which a number of people were killed. Unfortunately, crimes against
ethnic minorities are not a recent phenomenon and continue seemingly
unabated. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has marked a new level in
the alarming increase in hate crimes, particularly against people of Chinese
descent.
Against this background of violence and hate, we have noted with
great appreciation the extraordinary sacrifices of doctors, nurses, order-
lies, hospital workers, fire department brigades, the police and clerks in
grocery stores and pharmacies, and many others, who have risked their
lives and even lost their lives by exposing themselves to the coronavirus in
order to keep our communities functioning. While their dedication and
efforts have been highly praised, it is essential to recall that even in the
 PREFACE ix

best of times we have failed to accord such workers the compensation

and recognition that reflects the true value of their contributions. At the
same time, while our hearts go out to the millions of people who have
lost their jobs, salaries, and medical benefits, particularly small business
owners, it is crucial that we leave politics aside and be supportive of legis-
lation and efforts by local, state, and federal governments to help alleviate
their suffering and address their needs. Another tragedy in our country,
one that is noted for its wealth and extraordinary capacity at food produc-
tion, is the scandal of tens of thousands of people who have to wait in line
for hours at food distribution centers. Added to this suffering is the esti-
mated half million or more forgotten homeless people who each day have
no choice but to risk their lives living in the streets. These catastrophes,
too, are our times and call out to us for attention.
To be clear, Nostra Aetate does not deal specifically with these social
justice issues; however, the declaration does make clear the Church’s task
to promote unity and love among all peoples, indeed among nations.
Nostra Aetate exhorts everyone, through dialogue and collaboration with
the followers of other religions, to work with prudence to preserve and
promote the spiritual, moral, and sociocultural values that are found
among all people. It is in acting on these principles that we follow Nostra
Aetate’s call to counteract the hatred and injustices that exist in our own
time.
Nostra Aetate took almost four years to complete. Its approval process
involved intensive discussions, diplomacy, and sheer determination for it
to succeed. The essays in this volume are written by a group of interna-
tionally known scholars who provide the reader with an understanding
of the document’s historical context and its ongoing reception within a
variety of cultural and confessional contexts. The essays also offer students
and other scholars an excellent resource on Nostra Aetate’s history, as well
as the need to promote social justice and moral welfare in the context of
interreligious relations. Although our time is an especially difficult one,
it is not without hope. With education, mercy, compassion, and dialogue
we, the people in our time, can heed the call that Nostra Aetate issued
over fifty-five years ago, namely “to work sincerely for mutual under-
standing and to preserve as well as to promote together for the benefit
of all humankind social justice and moral welfare, as well as peace and
freedom.”

Villanova, USA Kail C. Ellis

 Acknowledgments

I am indebted to many people who have helped to make this volume

possible. First is Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation
for the Oriental Churches who sent his support and a gracious letter
of greeting to the conference participants. I am also grateful to Father
Peter M. Donohue, OSA, president of Villanova University who gave
encouragement and support; without him this conference could not have
taken place. I would also like to thank two longtime supporters of our
endeavors to promote interreligious dialogue and religious freedom, Mr.
Antoine Frem, Chairman of INDEVO Management Resources, Inc., and
Mr. Masoud Altirs, Chief Executive Officer for Capelli Sales, Inc., both of
whom gave generous financial support to the conference.
I have also had the benefit of advice from several individuals while plan-
ning the conference. In particular, Anthony O’Mahony, Fellow at Black-
friars Hall, University of Oxford, has been an excellent collaborator who
has provided expert advice and counsel in recommending speakers and
topics for this and our previous conference on Christians in the Middle
East. Also very helpful was Dr. John Borelli, Special Assistant for Catholic
Identity and Dialogue to the President of Georgetown University. Dr.
Borelli gave the Keynote Address for the conference and throughout the
process, never hesitated to respond when asked for his advice. I very much
appreciate John Borelli and Anthony O’Mahony’s wisdom and assistance
in making the conference a success.

xi
xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am especially grateful to Dr. Barbara Wall, Vice President for

Mission and Ministry at Villanova University, who gave unstinting support
and excellent advice. Barbara organized the six-breakout sessions that
focused on issues of religious diversity, pursuing interreligious relations,
missionary activity and dialogue, and the specifics of Christian Jewish and
Christian Muslim relations. Her work added greatly to the conference’s
academic component.
Ms. Lorraine McCorkle, Graphic Designer for University Commu-
nications, created the attractive conference brochure and website that
added to the aesthetic appeal of the conference presentation. Ms. Nadia
Barsoum, assistant editor of the Journal for South Asian and Middle
Eastern Studies, provided exceptional administrative clerical support and
proofreading of the manuscript. Ms. Angéle Ellis also took on the final
responsibility for proofing the manuscript, for which I am most grateful.
My longstanding colleague, Dr. Helen Lafferty, gave unwavering support
throughout the process, and Mr. Anthony Alfano and his assistant, Ms.
Kathy Welsch, provided unfailing support for the guest accommodations
at the Inn at Villanova and ensured that the excellent conference venue
in the Connelly Center was available. Finally, I would like to extend my
heartfelt thanks to all those too numerous to mention who helped to
make the Nostra Aetate conference a success.
 Contents

1 Introduction: Nostra Aetate and Its Relevance

for Today 1
Kail C. Ellis

Part I Nostra Aetate: Historical and Social Context

2 Correcting the Nostra Aetate Legend: The Contested,

Minimal, and Almost Failed Effort to Embrace
a Tragedy and Amend Christian Attitudes Toward
Jews, Muslims, and the Followers of Other Religions 9
John Borelli

3 The Ecclesial and Theological Origins of Nostra Aetate

and Its Significance for Present and Future Interfaith
Engagement 35
Rocco Viviano

xiii
xiv CONTENTS

Part II Nostra Aetate: Relationship with the Jewish

People

4 Harvest and Horizons: An Appraisal of Nostra Aetate

Para. 4 67
David Mark Neuhaus

5 Naming the Fellowship Between the Church

and the Jewish People at the Second Vatican Council
and in Our Time 89
Elizabeth T. Groppe

Part III Nostra Aetate: Relationship with Islam and

Eastern Christians

6 Catholic Saints and Scholars: Nostra Aetate and Islam 115

Christian S. Krokus

7 From the Margins to the Center: Exploring Nostra

Aetate in the Lives of Charles de Foucauld, Louis
Massignon, and Pierre Claverie 139
Isabel Olizar

8 The Christian West and the Eastern Patriarchates:

Reflections on Nostra Aetate and the World of Islam 163
Sidney H. Griffith

9 The Holy See, Islam, and the Role of the Eastern

Catholic Patriarchs in Developing Nostra Aetate 187
Kail C. Ellis

10 Eastern Orthodox Perspectives on Nostra Aetate

and Muslim–Christian Relations 211
Archimandrite Nikodemos Anagnostopoulos
 CONTENTS xv

Part IV Nostra Aetate and Other Christian Churches

11 The Church of England’s and the Responses

of the Broader European Protestant Traditions
to Nostra Aetate 225
Richard Sudworth

12 Nostra Aetate and the Christians of the Middle East 245

George Sabra

13 A Missionary Minefield or Millennial Partnership?

American Presbyterians, Catholics, and Jews Before
and After Nostra Aetate 265
Kaley M. Carpenter

Part V Nostra Aetate and Eastern Religions: Hinduism

and Buddhism

14 Catholic Teaching on Hinduism in Nostra Aetate:

Phenomenology of Religion and Its Theological
Implications in the Case of Hindu Theism 291
Martin Ganeri

15 Catholic–Buddhist Relations Since the Close

of the Second Vatican Council 307
James L. Fredericks

Index 329
 Notes on Contributors

Archimandrite Nikodemos Anagnostopoulos is an Orthodox priest of

the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, serving as a parish priest
at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Divine Wisdom in London.
He completed his Doctoral Research at Heythrop College, Univer-
sity of London specializing on Muslim–Christian Relations in South-
Eastern Europe. His main research areas are Muslim–Christian relations
and Eastern and Orthodox Christianity and Liturgy. He studied Social
Theology at Kapodistrian University of Athens.
John Borelli is Special Assistant for Catholic Identity and Dialogue to
John DeGioia the President of Georgetown University. He received his
doctorate from Fordham University and served on the US Catholic
Bishops Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and as a
consultor to the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
His most recent book, which he co-edited with Ronald J. Sider, is
Catholics and Evangelicals for the Common Good (Cascade Books, 2018).
He has co-authored or edited five other books and has published over
200 scholarly articles. From 2006, he worked with Thomas F. Stransky,
CSP, a founding staff member of the Secretariat for Christian Unity on
the genesis and development of Nostra Aetate until Fr. Stransky’s death
in 2019. Dr. Borelli is finishing the manuscript on that story.
Kaley M. Carpenter is an Associate Professor in the Lawrence C. Gallen
Teaching Faculty of the Augustine & Culture Seminar Program at

xvii
xviii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Villanova University. She earned her Ph.D. in History and Ecumenics

from Princeton Seminary and specializes in the study of Christian world
missions and American religious history. For her pedagogy in interdis-
ciplinary courses—which encompass history, literature, religion, philos-
ophy, and media ecology—Dr. Carpenter was awarded the 2015 Faculty
Congress Award for Innovative Teaching and the 2016 Veritas Grant for
research.
Kail C. Ellis, OSA is a member of the Augustinian province of St.
Thomas of Villanova. He is currently Assistant to the President, dean
emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, former vice pres-
ident for Academic Affairs and associate professor of political science
at Villanova University. His Ph.D. in international relations is from
the Catholic University of America. The founder-director of Villanova’s
Canter for Arab and Islamic Studies; he is editor of The Journal of South
Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. He has published articles and chap-
ters related to the Middle East and edited Secular Nationalism and
Citizenship in Muslim Countries: Arab Christians in the Levant, 2018);
Lebanon’s Second Republic. Prospects for the Twenty-first Century, (2002),
The Vatican, Islam, and the Middle East, (1987).
James L. Fredericks is an Emeritus Professor of Theological Studies at
Loyola Marymount University and a priest of the Archdiocese of San
Francisco. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago
and is a specialist in inter-religious dialogue, especially the dialogue
between Buddhism and Christianity. He has lectured internationally in
Japan, China, India, Iran, and Europe. Fredericks was a Senior Fulbright
Research Scholar in Kyoto, Japan, and has held the Numata Chair in
Buddhist Studies and Culture at Ryukoku University in Kyoto, Japan. He
has worked with the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue for
many years. In addition to many articles, he is the author of Faith Among
Faiths: Christian Theology and the Non-Christian Religions (Paulist Press)
and Buddhists and Christians: Through Comparative Theology to a New
Solidarity (Orbis Books). He is the co-editor of Interreligious Friendships
After Nostra Aetate (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).
Martin Ganeri, OP is a Prior Provincial of the Dominicans in England.
He teaches theology at Blackfriars Hall and the Blackfriars Pontifical
Studium. He earned a M.A. in Classics and Oriental Studies and M.Phil.
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xix

in Ancient Indian Archaeology at Cambridge. After joining the Domini-

cans, he gained a D.Phil. in Theology at Oxford. His research inter-
ests focus on theological engagement with other religions, especially with
Hinduism. He also teaches courses in Sacred Scripture, Phenomenology
and Theology of Religions, and Archaeology. His publications include,
Hindu Thought and Western Theism: The Vedanta Ramanuja (Routledge,
2015).
Sidney H. Griffith is an Ordinary Professor Emeritus in the Depart-
ment of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures at The Catholic
University of America, where he earned Ph.D. in 1977. His areas of
interest are Syriac Patristics, Christian Arabic Literature, and the history of
Christian/Muslim relations. His publications include The Bible in Arabic:
The Scriptures of the ‘People of the Book’ in the Language of Islam (2013),
The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians and Muslims in
the World of Islam (2008), and The Beginnings of Christian Theology in
Arabic: Muslim-Christian Encounters in the Early Islamic Period (2002).
Elizabeth T. Groppe is a Professor in the Religious Studies Depart-
ment at the University of Dayton. A Roman Catholic systematic theolo-
gian with a doctoral degree from the University of Notre Dame,
her areas of work include trinitarian theology, ecclesiology, liturgical
and sacramental theology, theological anthropology, and interreligious
dialogue. Her publications include Yves Congar’s Theology of the Holy
Spirit (Oxford, 2004) and articles and book chapters on a range of
topics that bring the Christian tradition to bear on twenty-first-century
challenges including ecological degradation, violence, racism, and the
Catholic–Jewish dialogue.
Christian S. Krokus is an Associate professor and chair of the depart-
ment of theology/religious studies at the University of Scranton. His
M.A. and Ph.D. are from Boston College. His teaching and research focus
on Christian–Muslim comparative theology. His publications include The
Theology of Louis Massignon: Islam, Christ, and the Church (CUA, 2017),
“The Darkness Is Not Death: Toward a Christian-Muslim Compara-
tive Theological Study of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus” (Spiritus: A
Journal of Christian Spirituality, 2017),“Louis Massignon: Vatican II
and Beyond” (Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, 2014); and
“Louis Massignon’s influence on the teaching of Vatican II on Muslims
and Islam” (Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 2012).
xx NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

David Mark Neuhaus, SJ teaches Scripture at the Seminary of the Latin

Patriarchate of Jerusalem in Beit Jala, the Religious Studies Department
at Bethlehem University, and the Salesian Theological Institute and at
Yad Ben Zvi in Jerusalem. He holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University
and pontifical degrees in theology and scripture from (Centre Sèvres) and
Rome (Pontifical Biblical Institute). He co-edited Justice and the Intifada:
Palestinians and Israelis Speak Out, and The Land That I Will Show You
… Land, Bible and History. From 2009 to 2017 he was Latin Patriarchal
Vicar for Hebrew Speaking Catholics in Israel.
Isabel Olizar holds master’s degrees in Divinity, from the University of
Edinburgh, and in Human Rights and Democratization, from the Euro-
pean Inter-University Centre for Human Rights and Democratization.
She joined the British Civil Service but continued to be intrigued by the
role of religion in national and international affairs. Heythrop College,
University of London, provided an opportunity to pursue these interests,
first through a master’s degree in Christianity and Interreligious Rela-
tions, focusing on Christian–Muslim dialogue, and then through doctoral
research at the Centre for Eastern Christianity. In 2019 she success-
fully defended her thesis, Witnessing to the Dignity of the Person: Pope
John Paul II’s Political and Religious Thought on Religious Freedom in
the Context of the Catholic Church’s Global Dialogue with Muslims in
Conversation with French Catholic Thinkers Charles de Foucauld, Louis
Massignon and Pierre Claverie, O.P.
George Sabra received the Doctor of Theology from the [Catholic]
Faculty of Theology in the University of Tübingen in 1986. He is
currently Professor of Systematic Theology and the President of the
Near East School of Theology in Beirut. His other positions include
Lecturer at the American University of Beirut and representative of
the Reformed Churches of the Middle East in the World Alliance of
Reformed Churches—Oriental Orthodox Churches Dialogue Commis-
sion, the International Theological Dialogue Committee between the
World Communion of Reformed Churches and the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity (PCPCU) of the Catholic Church. He is the
editor of the Theological Review, a semi-annual journal of theology.
The Revd Doctor Richard Sudworth was appointed as Secretary for
Inter-Religious Affairs to the Archbishop of Canterbury and National
Inter-Religious Affairs Adviser for the Church of England in 2018. Prior
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xxi

to his appointment, he was involved in parish ministry in inner-city

Birmingham in predominantly Muslim areas. He completed his Ph.D.
at Heythrop College, University of London. His publications include
Encountering Islam: Christian-Muslim Relations in the Public Square’
(SCM, 2017) and an essay entitled “Anglican Interreligious Relations
in Generous Love: Indebted to and Moving from Vatican II” in The
Character of Christian-Muslim Encounter, (Brill, 2015).
Fr Rocco Viviano, SX is a member of the Japanese Province of the
Xaverian Missionaries. He is an Associate Researcher at the Nanzan Insti-
tute for Religion and Culture, Nanzan University (Nagoya, Japan). He
holds a Ph.D. in theology from Heythrop College, University of London,
and is the Interreligious Dialogue Coordinator for the Kansai District of
the Japanese Province. He serves the Catholic Archdiocese of Osaka as
director of the Commission for Interreligious Dialogue, as well as director
of the Commission for Ecumenism. He is also a member of the Interreli-
gious Dialogue Committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan.
He lectured on missiology and theology in Manila. His research interests
are the Catholic teaching on Jewish–Christian relations, Christian–Muslim
dialogs, and the Christian–Buddhist encounters, particularly in Japan, and
the Christian encounter with Shinto.
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Nostra Aetate and Its Relevance

for Today

Kail C. Ellis

Of the sixteen documents produced by the Second Vatican Council, the

Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Reli-
gions is the briefest. Yet, it generated passionate discussions, both of a
theological and political nature, and caused intense world-wide newspaper
and media coverage. The document included statements on Catholic-
Jewish relations, the condemnation of anti-Semitism, and endeavored to
address anti-Jewish ideas in Christian history and the Church’s liturgy
that helped give rise to Nazism. As the document developed, it was
expanded to clarify ideas on the Church’s respect for the spiritual, moral,
and cultural values of other religions—Hinduism, Buddhism and, by
extension, other religious beliefs. Islam, however, came to dominate the
discussions due to concerns that a statement on the Jews would be inter-
preted politically not religiously in the Middle East where there is no
distinction between a person’s politics and religion.

K. C. Ellis (B)
Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA
e-mail: kail.ellis@villanova.edu

© The Author(s) 2021 1

K. C. Ellis (ed.), Nostra Aetate, Non-Christian
Religions, and Interfaith Relations,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54008-1_1
2 K. C. ELLIS

Since its promulgation on 25 October 1965, Nostra Aetate continues

to evolve as a result of geopolitical conflicts and current events that make
it even more relevant today. The emergence of ethno-nationalist leaders
and anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe mirrors the resurgence of white
supremacists in the United States. Anti-Semitism is augmented by the rise
of Islamophobia and the actions of government officials who have sought
to ban Muslims from entering the United States.1 These trends serve to
highlight the need to reiterate the goals stated in Nostra Aetate, namely,
“In her task of promoting unity and love among men, indeed among
nations, [the Catholic Church] considers above all in this declaration what
men have in common and what draws them to fellowship.”
Today, interreligious relations with Islam are even more crucial and
complicated. Islam spans a vast geographical area extending from Africa,
the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Islam has grown closer to Chris-
tianity not only because of theological dialogue and shared social and
economic concerns, but also geographically. Conflicts and struggles
remain. The distrust and misunderstanding among religions first referred
to in Nostra Aetate have not been dispelled. Fears of “radical Islam” that
melds suspicions about government infiltration with fears of “Sharia Law,”
the legal code of Islam, are taking hold in the United States.
In the Middle East, where religion also identifies a person’s commu-
nity, the estimated ten to eleven million Arab Christians suffer various
forms of marginalization. The threat to equality of citizenship for Chris-
tians remains, causing some Arab Christians to regard sectarianism and
the continued rule of authoritarian regimes as protections against militant
Islamists. The development of Nostra Aetate however, points to a more
positive path as a foundation for Muslims and Christians, namely, to “pru-
dently and lovingly, through dialogue and collaboration with the followers
of other religions, and in witness of Christian faith and life, acknowledge,
preserve and promote the spiritual growth with joy the religious values
we have in common.”
Nostra Aetate’s exhortation to dialogue and collaboration is reflected
in a statement the Jesuits of Syria released on 3 June 2011 as the Syrian
Civil War started to unfold. As this tragic conflict persists, the statement’s
relevance continues today.
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believed that nothing would so effectually stop the pauperising of the
people by indiscriminate charity as the trained nurse in the homes of
the sick poor, who would teach her patients how best to help
themselves. “To carry out,” continues Miss Nightingale, “the practical
principles of preventing disease by stopping its causes and the
causes of infections which spread disease. Last but not least, to
show a common life able to sustain the workers in this saving but
hardest work under a working head, who will personally keep the
training and nursing at its highest point. Is not this a great success?
“District nursing, so solitary, so without the cheer and the
stimulus of a big corps of fellow-workers in the bustle of a public
hospital, but also without many of its cares and strains, requires what
it has with you, the constant supervision and inspiration of a genius
of nursing and a common home. May it spread with such a standard
over the whole of London and the whole of the land.”
Two years later (1876) Miss Nightingale made an eloquent plea
in a long letter to The Times for the establishment of a Home for
Nurses in connection with the National Society for Providing Trained
Nurses for the Poor. This letter was later reprinted as a pamphlet on
Trained Nursing for the Sick Poor. In specially pleading for a Central
Home for Nurses, she wrote, “If you give nurses a bad home, or no
home at all, you will have only nurses who live in a bad home, or no
home at all,” and she emphasises the necessity for the district nurse
to have a knowledge of how “to nurse the home as well as the
patient,” and for that reason she should live in a place of comfort
herself free from the discomforts of private lodgings.
Miss Nightingale’s plea bore fruit in the establishment of the
Central Home for Nurses, 23, Bloomsbury Square, under the able
management of Miss Florence Lees. Nothing pleased Miss
Nightingale better than to get reports of the experience of the district
nurses amongst the poor, and to hear how the people received their
visits and what impression they were able to make on the habits of
the people. She was specially delighted with the story of a puny slum
boy who vigorously rebelled against a tubbing which Miss Lees was
administering.
 “Willie don’t like to be bathed,” he roared; “oo may bath de debil,
if oo like!” The implication that Miss Lees was capable of washing
the devil white Miss Nightingale pronounced the finest compliment
ever paid to a district nurse.
She has always impressed upon district nurses the need not
only of knowing how to give advice, but how to carry it out. The
nurse must be able to show how to clean up a home, and Miss
Nightingale used frequently to quote the case of a bishop who
cleansed the pigsties of the normal training school, of which he was
master, as an example—“one of the most episcopal acts ever done,”
was her comment.
At first the district nurses were recruited almost entirely from the
class known as “gentlewomen,” as it was thought both by Miss
Nightingale and Miss Lees that it required women of special
refinement and education to exercise influence over the poor in their
own homes. Also, one of the objects of the National Association was
to raise the standard of nursing in the eyes of the public. It was soon
proved that the lady nurses did not shirk any of the disagreeable and
menial offices which fall to the lot of the district nurse. Broadly
speaking, it is only the educated women with a vocation for nursing
who will undertake such duties; the woman who merely wants to
earn an income will choose hospital or private nursing. In the earlier
stages of the movement the district nurses received high
remuneration, and on this question of fees the Queen of Nurses may
be quoted:—
“I have seen somewhere in print that nursing is a profession to
be followed by the ‘lower middle-class.’ Shall we say that painting or
sculpture is a profession to be followed by the ‘lower middle-class’?
Why limit the class at all? Or shall we say that God is only to be
served in His sick by the ‘lower middle-class’?
“It appears to be the most futile of all distinctions to classify as
between ‘paid’ and unpaid art, so between ‘paid’ and unpaid nursing
—to make into a test a circumstance as adventitious as whether the
hair is black or brown, viz., whether people have private means or
not, whether they are obliged or not to work at their art or their
nursing for a livelihood. Probably no person ever did that well which
he did only for money. Certainly no person ever did that well which
he did not work at as hard as if he did it solely for money. If by
amateur in art or in nursing are meant those who take it up for play, it
is not art at all, it is not nursing at all. You never yet made an artist by
paying him well; but an artist ought to be well paid.”
A most important outcome of the introduction of a system of
trained nurses for the sick poor was the establishment of the
Queen’s Jubilee Nurses. Queen Victoria, moved by the great benefit
which the National Nursing Association had conferred, decided, on
the representations of the Committee of the Women’s Jubilee Fund,
furthered by Princess Christian, to devote the £70,000 subscribed, to
D
the extension of this work. The interest of the fund, amounting to
£2,000 per annum, was applied to founding an institution for the
education and maintenance of nurses for tending the sick poor in
their own homes, with branch centres all over the kingdom. The
charter for the new foundation was executed on September 20th,
1890.

D
Mrs. Dacre Craven had in 1877 proposed, in
a letter laid before Queen Victoria, that a part of
the fund of St. Katharine’s Royal Hospital should
be devoted to founding a Training Institute for
District Nurses of gentle birth, to be called
“Queen’s Nurses.”

The central institute was at first connected with St. Katharine’s

Royal Hospital, Regent’s Park, an institution which had always been
under the patronage of the Queens of England since it was founded
by Queen Matilda, the wife of Stephen, at St. Katharine’s Wharf,
near the Tower of London. Subsequently the headquarters of the
Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Nursing Institute was removed to Victoria
Street. Central homes have also been established at Edinburgh,
Dublin, and Cardiff, and district homes all over the kingdom are
affiliated to the Institute.
The National Association for Providing Trained Nurses for the
Sick Poor, in which Miss Nightingale had so deeply interested
herself, was affiliated to the Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Institute, but it
still has its original headquarters at the Nurses’ Home, 23,
Bloomsbury Square, so ably managed by the present Lady
Superintendent, Miss Hadden. The Chairman of the Executive
Committee is Henry Bonham Carter, Esq., an old friend and fellow
worker of Miss Nightingale, while the Hon. Secretary is the Rev.
Dacre Craven, Rector of St. Andrew’s, Holborn, whose wife was
Miss Florence Lees, the first Superintendent-General of the home
and branches, and one of Miss Nightingale’s devoted friends. Her
Royal Highness Princess Christian is President of the Association.
There is probably no movement which has spread over the
country so rapidly, and which appeals to the goodwill of all classes,
as the nursing of the sick poor in their own homes, and its success
has been one of the chief satisfactions of Miss Nightingale’s life. She
is always eager to hear of fresh recruits being added to the nursing
army of the sick poor, and it may prove of interest to quote the
regulations issued by the National Association:—

REGULATIONS FOR THE TRAINING OF

NURSES FOR THE SICK POOR,
AND THEIR SUBSEQUENT ENGAGEMENT
1. A Nurse desiring to be trained in District Nursing must
have previously received at least two years’ training in a large
general Hospital, approved by the Committee, and bring
satisfactory testimonials as to capacity and conduct.
2. If considered by the Superintendent likely to prove
suitable for District Nursing, she will be received on trial for one
month. If at the end of that time she is considered suitable, she
will continue her course of training, with technical class
instruction for five months longer.
3. The Nurse will, at the end of her month of trial, be
required to sign an agreement with the Queen Victoria’s Jubilee
Institute that she will, for one year from the date of the
completion of her District training, continue to work as a District
Nurse wherever the District Council of the Queen’s Institute may
require her services.
4. While under training, the Nurse will be subject to the
authority of the Superintendent of the Training Home, and she
must conform to the rules and regulations of the Home. She will
be further subject, as to her work, to the inspection of the
Inspector of the Queen’s Institute.
5. If, during the time of her training, the Nurse be found
inefficient, or otherwise unsuitable, her engagement may, with
the consent of the Inspector of the Queen’s Institute, be
terminated by the Superintendent of the Training Home, at a
week’s notice. In the case of misconduct or neglect of duty she
will be liable to immediate dismissal by the Superintendent of the
Training Home, with the concurrence of the Inspector of the
Queen’s Institute.
6. During her six months’ training she will receive a payment
of £12 10s., payable, one-half at the end of three months from
admission, and the remainder at the end of six months; but
should her engagement be terminated from any cause before
the end of her training, she will not, without the consent of the
Queen’s Institute, be entitled to any part payment. She will be
provided with a full board, laundry, a separate furnished
bedroom or cubicle, with a sitting room in common, as well as a
uniform dress, which she will be required to wear at all times
when on duty. The uniform must be considered the property of
the Institute.
7. On the satisfactory completion of her training, the Nurse
will be recommended for engagement as a District Nurse, under
some Association affiliated to the Queen’s Institute, the salary
usually commencing at £30 per annum.
 CHAPTER XXIV
LATER YEARS

The Nightingale Home—Rules for Probationers—Deaths of

Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale—Death of Lady Verney—
Continues to Visit Claydon—Health Crusade—Rural
Hygiene—A Letter to Mothers—Introduces Village
Missioners—Village Sanitation in India—The Diamond
Jubilee—Balaclava Dinner.

When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not the decline that it
reveals, but the first days of immortality.—Madame de Stael.

Miss Nightingale’s work for the profession which her name and
example had lifted into such high repute continued with unbated
energy. The year 1871 brought what must have seemed like the
crowning glory of her initial work when the Nightingale Home and
Training School was opened as an integral portion of the new St.
Thomas’s Hospital, the finest institution of its kind in Europe. This
circumstance added greatly to the popularity of nursing as a
profession for educated women.
Queen Victoria had laid the foundation-stone of the new hospital
on May 13th, 1868, on the fine site skirting the Thames Embankment
opposite the Houses of Parliament. It was erected on the block
system, which Miss Nightingale has always recommended, and she
took a keen interest in all the model appliances and arrangements
introduced into this truly palatial institution for the sick.
The hospital extends from the foot of Westminster Bridge along
the river to Lambeth Palace, and has a frontage of 1,700 ft. It is built
in eight separate blocks or pavilions. The six centre blocks are for
patients, the one at the north end next Westminster Bridge is for the
official staff, and the one at the south end is used for lecture rooms
and a school of medicine. Each block is 125 ft. from the other, but
coupled by a double corridor. The corridor fronting the river forms a
delightful terrace promenade. Each block has three tiers of wards
above the ground floor. The operating theatre is capable of
containing six hundred students. A special wing in one of the
northern blocks was set apart for the Nightingale Home and Training
School for Nurses. All the arrangements of this wing were carried out
in accordance with Miss Nightingale’s wishes.
The hospital contains in all one thousand distinct apartments,
and the building cost half a million of money. It was opened by
Queen Victoria on June 21st, 1871, and The Times in its account of
the proceedings is lost in admiration of “the lady nurses, in their
cheerful dresses of light grey [blue is the colour of the Sisters’
dresses], ladies, bright, active, and different altogether from the old
type of hospital nurse whom Dickens made us shudder to read of
and Miss Nightingale is helping us to abolish.” The new building
gave increased accommodation and provided for forty probationers.
The rules for admission remained practically the same as when the
Training School was first started at the old St. Thomas’s.
At a dinner to inaugurate the opening of the new hospital, the
Chairman, Sir Francis Hicks, related that Miss Nightingale had told
him that she thought it “the noblest building yet erected for the good
of our kind.”
But our interest centres in the Nightingale wing. The dining hall is
a pleasant apartment which contains several mementoes of the lady
whose name it bears. One is a unique piece of statuary enclosed in
a glass case and standing on a pedestal. To the uninitiated, it might
stand for a representation of a vestal virgin, but we know it to have a
nobler prototype than the ideal of womanly perfection sacred to the
Romans. That statuette is not the blameless priestess of Vesta, “the
world forgetting, by the world forgot,” but our heroine, whom the
sculptor has modelled in the character of “The Lady with the Lamp.”
She stands, a tall, slim figure, in simple nurse’s dress, holding in one
hand a small lamp—such as she used when going her nightly rounds
at Scutari hospital—which she is shading with the other hand. There
is also a bust of Miss Nightingale in the hall, a portrait of her brother-
in-law, the late Sir Harry Verney, for many years the Chairman of the
Council of the Nightingale Fund, and a portrait of Mrs. Wardroper,
the first head of the Nightingale Home when originally founded.
There is also a clock presented by the Grand Duchess of Baden,
sister of the late Emperor Frederick of Germany, who was a great
admirer of Miss Nightingale’s work and herself an active organiser of
relief for the sick soldiers during the Franco-German War.
The dining-hall leads into the nurses’ sitting-room. Each nurse
has her own private room.
The number of probationers slightly varies from year to year, but
is usually fifty-two, and there are always more applicants than can be
entertained. They are divided into Special probationers, who are
gentlewomen by birth and education, daughters of professional men,
clergymen, officers, merchants, and others of the upper and middle
classes, age from twenty-four to thirty, and Ordinary probationers.
The Special probationers are required to be trained to be future
heads of hospitals, or of departments of hospitals. They learn every
detail of a nurse’s work, and also the duties to fit them for
responsible posts as matrons, etc. The Ordinary probationers are
trained to be efficient nurses, and after some years’ service may
obtain superior appointments.
All nurses who have passed through St. Thomas’s are united by
a special tie to Miss Nightingale, who rejoices in their successes,
and likes to hear from time to time of the progress of their work in the
various hospitals and institutions of which they have become heads.
Mr. Bonham Carter, her old and valued friend, remains the
secretary of the Nightingale Fund, and Miss Hamilton is the matron
of the hospital, and has control of the Nightingale Home.
In the same year (1871) that the new Nightingale Home and
Training School was opened, Miss Nightingale published a valuable
work on Lying-in Hospitals, and two years later she made a new
literary departure by the publication in Fraser’s Magazine of two
articles under the heading “Notes of Interrogation,” in which she
dealt with religious doubts and problems. Miss Nightingale from her
youth up has shown a deeply religious nature, and her attempt to
grapple with some of the deep questions of faith, as she had thought
them out in the solitude of her sick-room, merit thoughtful
consideration.
Miss Nightingale has lived so entirely for the public good that her
private family life is almost lost sight of. But her affections never
ceased to twine themselves around the homes of her youth. After
busy months in London occupied in literary work and the furthering
of various schemes, came holidays spent at Lea Hurst and Embley
with her parents, when she resumed her interest in all the old
people, and ministered to the wants of the sick poor. Though no
longer able to lead an active life and visit amongst the people, she
had a system of inquiry by which she kept herself informed of the
wants and needs of her poorer friends. She was particularly
interested in the young girls of the district, and liked to have them
come to Lea Hurst for an afternoon’s enjoyment as in the days gone
by. It was soon known in the vicinity of her Derbyshire or Hampshire
home when “Miss Florence” had arrived.
In January, 1874, Miss Nightingale sustained the first break in
her old home life by the death of her father. He passed peacefully
away at Embley in his eightieth year and was buried in East Willows
Churchyard. His tomb bears the inscription:—
WILLIAM EDWARD NIGHTINGALE,
of Embley in this County, and of Lea Hurst,
Derbyshire.
Died January 5th, 1874, in his eightieth year.
“And in Thy Light shall we see Light.”—Ps. xxxvi. 9.
After her father’s death, Miss Nightingale spent much of her time
with her widowed mother at Embley and Lea Hurst, between which
residences the winter and summer were divided as in the old days. It
was well known that “Miss Florence’s” preference was for Lea Hurst,
and she would linger there some seasons until the last golden leaves
had fallen from the beeches in her favourite “walk” in Lea Woods.
Some of the old folks had passed away and the young ones had
settled in homes of their own, but no change in the family history of
the people escaped Miss Florence. She ministered through her
private almoner to the wants of the sick, and bestowed her name
and blessing on many of the cottage babes. By her thoughtful
provision a supply of fresh, pure milk from the dairy of Lea Hurst was
daily sent to those who were in special need of it. People on the
estate recall that before she left in the autumn “Miss Florence”
always gave directions that a load of holly and evergreens should be
cut from Lea Woods and sent to the Nurses’ Home at St. Thomas’s,
the District Nurses’ Home in Bloomsbury Square, and the Harley
Street Home, for Christmas decoration.
 CLAYDON HOUSE, THE SEAT OF SIR EDMUND VERNEY, WHERE THE
“FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE” ROOMS ARE PRESERVED.
(Photo by Payne, Aylesbury.)
[To face p. 320.

On February 1st, 1880, Miss Nightingale suffered another loss in

the death of her beloved mother, whose last years she had so
faithfully tended as far as her strength would allow. Mrs. Nightingale,
to whose beautiful character and example her famous daughter
owes so much, passed away at Embley and was buried beside her
husband in East Willows Churchyard. Her tomb bears the
inscription:—

Devoted to the Memory of our Mother,

FRANCES NIGHTINGALE,
Wife of William Edward Nightingale, Esq.
Died February 1st, 1880.
 “God is Love.”—1 John iv. 16.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His
benefits.”—Ps. ciii. 2.
BY F. PARTHENOPE VERNEY AND FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE

After the death of her mother, Miss Nightingale still occasionally

stayed at Lea Hurst and Embley, which had passed to her kinsman,
Mr. William Shore Nightingale, and continued her old interest in the
people of the district. In 1887 the members of a working men’s club
in Derbyshire presented Miss Nightingale with a painting of Lea
Hurst, a gift which she received with peculiar pleasure. It was about
this time that she paid her last visit to the loved home of her
childhood.
Miss Nightingale’s time was now passed between her London
house, 10, South Street, Park Lane, and Claydon, the beautiful
home near Winslow, Buckinghamshire, of her sister, who had in
1859 become the second wife of Sir Harry Verney. Sir Harry was the
son of Sir Harry Calvert, Governor of Chelsea Hospital and Adjutant-
General of the Forces. He had been a Major in the army, and in 1827
assumed the name of Verney. The family of Verney had been settled
in Buckinghamshire since the fifteenth century. Sir Harry was at
various times member of Parliament for Bedford and also
Buckingham. He was deeply interested in all matters of army reform
and in active sympathy with the schemes of his distinguished sister-
in-law, and acted as Chairman of the Nightingale Fund.
At Claydon Miss Nightingale found a beautiful and congenial
holiday retreat with Sir Harry Verney and her beloved sister, who was
well known in literary and political circles; her books on social
questions had the distinction of being quoted in the House of
Commons. In the second year of her marriage (1861) Lady Verney
had laid the foundation stone of the new Buckinghamshire Infirmary
at Aylesbury, the construction of which Miss Nightingale watched
with great interest during her visits to Claydon. Her bust adorns the
entrance hall of the infirmary. During her summer visits to Claydon,
Miss Nightingale frequently gave garden parties for the Sisters from
St. Thomas’s Hospital.
 Lady Verney died, after a long and painful illness, in 1890, sadly
enough on May 12th, her sister’s birthday. Sir Harry Verney survived
his wife barely four years, and at his death Claydon passed to Sir
Edmund Hope Verney, the son of his first marriage with the daughter
of Admiral Sir George Johnstone Hope.
Sir Edmund was a gallant sailor, who as a young lieutenant had
served in the Crimean War and received a Crimean medal,
Sebastopol clasp. He had again distinguished himself in the Indian
Mutiny, was mentioned in dispatches, and received an Indian medal,
Lucknow clasp. He was Liberal M.P. for North Bucks 1885–6 and
1889–91, and represented Brixton on the first London County
Council. Sir Edmund married the eldest daughter of Sir John Hay-
Williams and Lady Sarah, daughter of the first Earl Amherst, a lady
who has taken an active part in the movement for higher education
in Wales, and served for seven years on a Welsh School Board. She
is a member of the Executive Committee of the Welsh University. Sir
Edmund has estates in Anglesey. Lady Verney is a member of the
County Education Committee for Buckinghamshire. She is
continuing her mother-in-law’s work of editing the “Verney Memoirs.”
Sir Edmund takes great interest in education and rural questions. He
is a member of the Bucks County Council and the Dairy Farmers’
Association, and has published articles on Agricultural Education
and kindred subjects.
After her sister’s death Miss Nightingale continued to pass some
of her time at Claydon until, in 1895, increasing infirmity made the
journey impracticable, and she has continued to interest herself in
the rural affairs of the district. The suite of apartments which Miss
Nightingale occupied at Claydon are preserved by Sir Edmund and
Lady Verney as when she occupied them, and are now styled “The
Florence Nightingale Rooms.” They consist of a large, charmingly
furnished sitting-room with a domed ceiling, situated at a corner of
the mansion and so commanding a double view over the grounds,
and a bedroom and ante-room. Miss Nightingale’s invalid couch still
stands in her favourite corner of the sitting-room, and beside it is a
large china bowl which loving hands once daily replenished with
fresh flowers, such as our heroine loved to have about her when she
occupied the room. In the adjoining apartment stands Miss
Nightingale’s half-tester bedstead and old-fashioned carved
wardrobe and chest of drawers. A large settee is at the foot of the
bed, and was a favourite lounge with Miss Nightingale during the
day. Pictures and family portraits hang on the various walls, and to
these have been added by Sir Edmund Verney a series of interesting
pictures culled from various sources to illustrate events in Miss
Nightingale’s work in the East. The rooms will doubtless in time form
an historic museum in Claydon House.
After her beloved sister’s death Miss Nightingale was sad and
despondent, and one detects the note of weariness in a letter which
she addressed in 1890 to the Manchester Police Court Mission for
Lads. She was anxious that more should be done to reclaim first
offenders and save them from the contaminating influences of prison
life. “I have no power of following up this subject,” she wrote, “though
it has interested me all my life. For the last (nearly) forty years I have
been immersed in two objects, and undertaken what might well
occupy twenty vigorous young people, and I am an old and
overworked invalid.”
Happily Miss Nightingale’s work was not done yet. Two years
later (1892) found her at the age of seventy-two starting a vigorous
health crusade in Buckinghamshire in particular, and in the rural
districts generally. The 1890 Act for the Better Housing of the
Working Classes specially roused her attention in a subject in which
she had always been interested. She had little faith in Acts of
Parliament reforming the habits of the people. “On paper,” she
writes, “there could not be a more perfect Health Directory [than the
Act] for making our sanitary authorities and districts worthy of the
name they bear. We have powers and definitions. Everything is
provided except the two most necessary: the money to pay for and
the will to carry out the reforms.” If the new Act were enforced, Miss
Nightingale was of opinion that three-fourths of the rural districts in
England would be depopulated and “we should have hundreds and
thousands of poor upon our hands, owing to the large proportion of
houses unfit for habitation in the rural districts.”
 In 1892 Miss Nightingale addressed a stirring letter to the
Buckinghamshire County Council on the advisability of appointing a
Sanitary Committee to deal with the health questions of the district.
“We must create a public opinion which will drive the Government,”
she wrote, “instead of the Government having to drive us—an
enlightened public opinion, wise in principles, wise in details. We hail
the County Council as being or becoming one of the strongest
engines in our favour, at once fathering and obeying the great
impulse for national health against national and local disease. For
we have learned that we have national health in our hands—local
sanitation, national health. But we have to contend against centuries
of superstition and generations of indifference. Let the County
Council take the lead.”
Miss Nightingale believed that the best method for promoting
sanitary reform among the people was to influence the women—the
wives and mothers who had control of the domestic management of
the homes. Her next step was, with the aid of the County Council
Technical Instruction Committee, to arrange for a missioner to teach
in the rural districts of Buckinghamshire. She selected three specially
trained and educated women, who were not only to give addresses
in village schoolrooms on such matters as disinfection, personal
cleanliness, ventilation, drainage, whitewashing, but were to visit the
homes of the poor and give friendly instruction and advice to the
women.
She knew, and respected the feeling, that an Englishman
regards his home, however humble, as a castle into which no one
may enter uninvited. Miss Nightingale had no sympathy with the
class of “visiting ladies” who lift the latch of a poor person’s cottage
and walk in without knocking. In launching her scheme of visitation
she did the courteous thing by writing a circular letter to the village
mothers, asking them to receive the missioners. The letter runs:—

“Dear Hard-working Friends,

“I am a hard-working woman too. May I speak to you?
And will you excuse me, though not a mother?
 “You feel with me that every mother who brings a child into
the world has the duty laid upon her of bringing up the child in
such health as will enable him to do the work of his life.
“But though you toil all day for your children, and are so
devoted to them, this is not at all an easy task.
“We should not attempt to practise dress-making or any
other trade without any training for it; but it is generally
impossible for a woman to get any teaching about the
management of health; yet health is to be learnt....
“Boys and girls must grow up healthy, with clean minds,
clean bodies, and clean skins. And for this to be possible, the air,
the earth, and the water that they grow up in and have around
them must be clean. Fresh air, not bad air; clean earth, not foul
earth; pure water, not dirty water; and the first teachings and
impressions that they have at home must all be pure, and gentle,
and firm. It is home that teaches the child, after all, more than
any other schooling. A child learns before it is three whether it
shall obey its mother or not; and before it is seven, wise men tell
us that its character is formed.
“There is, too, another thing—orderliness. We know your
daily toil and love. May not the busiest and hardest life be
somewhat lightened, the day mapped out, so that each duty has
the same hours? It is worth while to try to keep the family in
health, to prevent the sorrow, the anxiety, the trouble of illness in
the house, of which so much can be prevented.
“When a child has lost its health, how often the mother says,
‘Oh, if I had only known! but there was no one to tell me.’ And,
after all, it is health and not sickness that is our natural state—
the state that God intends for us. There are more people to pick
us up when we fall than to enable us to stand upon our feet. God
did not intend all mothers to be accompanied by doctors, but He
meant all children to be cared for by mothers. God bless your
work and labour of love.
“Florence Nightingale.”
 Still following up the subject of rural sanitation, Miss Nightingale
prepared a paper on “Rural Hygiene: Health Teachings in Towns and
Villages,” which was read at the Conference of Women Workers at
Leeds in November, 1893. It was written in her usual clear and
incisive manner, going straight to the root of the matter and
illustrating her points with humorous illustrations. “What can be done
for the health of the home,” she asks, “without the women of the
home?... Let not England lag behind. It is a truism to say that the
women who teach in India must know the languages, the religions,
superstitions, and customs of the women to be taught in India. It
ought to be a truism to say the very same for England.” Referring to
the village mothers, she says, “We must not talk to them, or at them,
but with them.”
As an instance of the happy-go-lucky style in which sick
cottagers are occasionally treated, Miss Nightingale relates the
following amusing stories:—
“A cottage mother, not so very poor, fell into the fire in a fit while
she was preparing breakfast, and was badly burnt. We sent for the
nearest doctor, who came at once, bringing his medicaments in his
gig. The husband ran for the horse-doctor, who did not come, but
sent an ointment for a horse. The wise woman of the village came of
her own accord, and gave another ointment.
“‘Well, Mrs. Y.,’ said the lady who sent for the doctor, ‘and what
did you do?’
“‘Well, you know, miss, I studied a bit, and then I mixed all three
together, because then, you know, I was sure I got the right one.’
“The consequences to the poor woman may be imagined!
“Another poor woman, in a different county, took something
which had been sent to her husband for a bad leg, believing herself
to have fever. ‘Well, miss,’ she said, ‘it did me a sight of good, and
look at me, baint I quite peart?’ The ‘peartness’ ended in fever.”
The manners of the women to their children in many cases are
greatly in need of reform, and Miss Nightingale quotes the injunction
of an affectionate mother to her child about going to school, “I’ll bang
your brains out if you don’t do it voluntally.”
Miss Nightingale deals in her paper with the need for drastic
measures to promote rural sanitation such as drainage, proper water
supply, scavenging, removal of dust and manure heaps from close
proximity to the houses, and the inspection of dairies and cowsheds.
In regard to the latter she writes, “No inspection exists worthy of the
name.” This was in 1893, and the alarming facts about the non-
inspection of rural milk supplies exposed in The Daily Chronicle in
1904 show that matters are little improved since Miss Nightingale
laid an unerring finger on the defect eleven years ago.
In addition to an independent medical officer and sanitary
inspector under him, “we want,” said Miss Nightingale, “a fully trained
nurse for every district and a health missioner,” and she defines her
idea of the duties of a missioner. These women must of course be
highly qualified for their work. They should visit the homes of the
people to advocate rules of health. Persuade the careful housewife,
who is afraid of dirt falling on to her clean grate, to remove the sack
stuffed up the unused chimney, teach the cottagers to open their
windows in the most effective way for free ventilation. “It is far more
difficult to get people to avoid poisoned air than poisoned water,”
says Miss Nightingale, “for they drink in poisoned air all night in their
bedrooms.” The mothers should be taught the value of a daily bath,
the way to select nourishing food for their families, what to do till the
doctor comes and after he has left.
However, the first great step for the missioner is to get the trust
and friendship of the women. And this “is not made by lecturing upon
bedrooms, sculleries, sties, and wells in general, but by examination
of particular rooms, etc.” The missioner, above all, must not appear
to “pry” into the homes, or to talk down to the women, neither should
she give alms. The whole object of the recommendations was to
teach people how to avoid sickness and poverty.
Miss Nightingale’s efforts to promote sanitary reforms were not
confined to our own land, but extended to far-away India, a country
in which she has, as we have already seen, taken a great interest.
She had watched the success of some of the sanitary schemes
carried out by the municipalities of large towns of India with
satisfaction, but there yet remained the vast rural population for
which little was done, a very serious matter indeed when we
consider that ninety per cent. of the two hundred and forty millions of
India dwell in small rural villages. Miss Nightingale prepared one of
her “searchlight” papers on “Village Sanitation in India,” which was
read before the Tropical Section of the eighth International Congress
of Hygiene and Demography, held at Buda Pesth in September,
1894.
In this she considers the condition of the rural provinces of India
from facts obtained by correspondence with people of authority on
the spot, and deals with the defective sewage, water supply, and the
difficulties arising from the insanitary habits of the people and their
attachment to old customs. “Still,” she pleads, “with a gentle and
affectionate people like the Hindoos much may be accomplished by
personal influence. I can give a striking instance within my own
knowledge. In the Bombay Presidency there was a village which had
for long years been decimated by cholera. The Government had in
vain been trying to ‘move’ the village. ‘No,’ they said, ‘they would not
go; they had been there since the time of the Mahrattas: it was a
sacred spot, and they would not move now.’
“At last, not long ago, a sanitary commissioner—dead now alas!
—who by wise sympathy, practical knowledge and skill had
conquered the confidence of the people, went to the Pancháyat,
explained to them the case, and urged them to move to a spot which
he pointed out to them as safe and accessible. By the very next
morning it had all been settled as he advised.
“The Government of India is very powerful, and great things may
be accomplished by official authority, but in such delicate matters
affecting the homes and customs of a very conservative people
almost more may be done by personal influence exercised with
kindly sympathy and respect for the prejudices of others.”
The celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897
was an occasion of great interest to Miss Nightingale, and in her